Also bad

Couldn't find a limen but this is a nice Canadian gull

I learnt a word today. This is good, I like to learn new things but it is also bad because I should have known this word previously but had never even considered its existence. To make it doubly bad, I am still at a loss for how to use the word. Generally when I learn a new word, gargantuan for example (yes, I know, I’m a Tarantino fan) or zeitgeist, I use it, regularly and teach it to my nieces but today I cannot.

            The word is liminal.

            I should not be surprised by its being, given that I use the word subliminal perhaps not frequently but certainly confidently. I could use it at a dinner party should I wish to – and not just with regard to advertising. So why was I surprised to read the word liminal today? More to the point, given that I know the word subliminal could I not just have removed the prefix and worked out (via mathematical/linguistic reasoning) what liminal meant? Was it really necessary to get out the dictionary and, on finding that it is not listed in my copy of Oxford Modern; did I really have to go to the university website in order to access the Complete Oxford and thus sate my curiosity?

            Still, curiosity sated please could someone give me a meaningful sentence containing the word? Or explain the following, quoted from Mind (1884:428):

‘The liminal difficulties cannot be evaded without the most disastrous consequences to the body of the exposition.’

Actually, perhaps E. B Titchener helps (1895):

‘We may also introduce the concept of the limen, defining the just noticeable deviation from indifference as a liminal pleasantness or unpleasantness.’

Or then again – perhaps he doesn’t.

Your comments would be greatly appreciated.

On a more (ful)filling note, here’s a cheap and cheerful recipe that you could serve at a dinner party without looking bad. (Just use less ingredients if you’re doing it for a starter).

Recipe: Warm chorizo and black-pudding salad

Source: Lots of chefs do variations

Ingredients:

Black pudding (1 per person)

Chorizo (not that ready sliced stuff)

Green beans

New potatoes

Dijon mustard

Crème fraiche

Butter (salted or unsalted – as you prefer)

Egg

Here’s what I do:

Halve the potatoes (if they’re large) and boil in water until tender, adding your beans for the last five minutes. Cook your black pudding to your liking, we boiled ours this time but you can slice and fry. Whilst all this is cooking slice your chorizo quite chunkily and fry in a separate pan until crispy. Meanwhile make your sauce – put some water in a pan and set it to boil, find a dish that fits snugly in the pan and into this place a good sized knob of butter, a teaspoon of Dijon and then a few spoons of crème fraiche. Stir it as it all melts together over the bain marie. (This sauce is all about personal preference – I like the mustardy taste quite mild so I use less mustard/more creme fraiche – you’ll need to taste and do it to your liking.)

            Get a big frying pan full of water and get this boiling. Plate up your salad on warmed plates and poach your eggs in the boiling water (they’ll only take a couple of minutes) serving these on top of your salad. Drizzle it all with a little sauce, serving the rest in a jug.